On Poetry

In my english class we're reading a short story by Stephen Crane, called "Maggie, girl of the streets".
its pretty depressing, but well-written.

In class today we looked at a couple (as in two) poems by the same author.
they are both short.

The first is titled, "A Man Said To The Universe":

A man said to the universe:
"Sir, I exist!"
"However," replioed the universe,
"The fact has not created in me
A sense of obligation."


The second is titled, "I Saw a Man Pursuing the Horizon", and goes as such:

I saw a man pursuing the horizon;
Round and round they sped.
I was disturbed at this;
I accosted the man.
"It is futile," I said,
"You can never--"

"You lie," he cried,
And ran on.

I should need to, but i'll explain the poems.
The first is on Man's plea to the universe.
People cry out to the stars all the time.
they want to be recognized by the world.
They want acknowledgment of their existance.
But does the universe care?
how can it? it's just a collection of stars and planets and giant rocks hurtling around through emptiness.
Cold, dark, sterile.

The other poem is on ignorance, for the most part.
Liken it to a dog chasing its own tail.
Futile, yes. Obvious, perhaps.
But the man refuses to accept that he cannot reach the horizon, which is in fact, an imaginary line representing the curvature of the earth.
Since the earth is more or less spherical, that line moves away from you at the exact same speed that you move toward it.


Here's some more poetry.

Psalm 121:
I lift up my eyes to the hills-
where does my help come from?
My help comes from the Lord,
the Maker of heaven and earth.

He will not let your foot slip-
he who watches over you will not slumber;
Indeed, he who watches over Israel
will neither slumber nor sleep.

The Lord watches over you-
the Lord is your shade at your right hand;
the sun will not harm you by day,
nor the moon by night.

The Lord will keep you from all harm-
he will watch over your life;
the Lord will watch over your coming and going
both now and forevermore.
[NIV]

The universe doesn't give a crap about you.
crying out to it doesn't do you a thing.
If anything, it makes you look stupid.

But God cares.
As the psalmist points out, he watches over us, both now and "forevermore".
Think about that.
The universe doesn't even care that we exist.
But God watches us intently- the way a child might watch an HO scale train run around and around its tracks, setting it straight when it gets derailed.
So crying out to Him might prove useful.
Even better, don't bother crying out to Him.
just trust that He's gonna guide you right on to where you need to be.

As for chasing after the horizon... don't be ignorant.
Don't try to reach goals that aren't possible to reach.
And don't find yourself believing in things that are obviously ridiculous.
Try to see reason.

Stephen Crane spent a lot of his life observing life in the slums of new york, and essentially surrounding himself with despair.
He died of tuberculosis when he was 28, in the year 1900.
What a bummer... i kinda liked the guy.